To the artist and illuminator this work was undoubtedly delightful but to the man who had to do the drudgery of mere copying of long works, it was undoubtedly a wearisome task. Every effort was made to incite these men to care and patience by magnifying the importance of their work and especially by representing it as a work of religion. It was held that the making of books, especially books of religion, was in a very special way agreeable to God and that salvation might be obtained in this manner when other means failed. It was even taught that there was a special relation between the amount of writing done and the number and magnitude of the sins to be atoned for. A story was widely circulated which is interesting for the light which it throws upon the childlike and literal way in which the things of the spirit were regarded by the mediaeval mind. It was said that a certain man entered a monastery with his soul burdened by many and grievous sins. He was set to the copying of a Bible and in due time completed the task alone. The task brought him salvation because the number of letters in the Bible exceeded by one the number of his sins. In time some of these libraries came to be of very considerable size even by modern standards. A few of them remain almost intact to our own day. The mediaeval librarians, as was proper considering the value of their charges, were very solicitous about the care of their books. Readers were warned to handle the books with care, to be careful about turning the leaves and especially to keep their fingers off the ink. Evidently the ancient readers had the tendency common to unskillful readers everywhere to trace the lines with their fingers as they read. The books were classified by subject matter, numbered, and catalogued. Some of these ancient catalogues showing the exact contents of the monastic libraries and the contemporary ideas of classification, not always the same as our own, are still preserved. An interesting list remains of nine books brought over to England by St. Augustine the missionary which formed the first library of Christ Church in Canterbury. It consisted of a Bible in two volumes, a psalter, a book of gospels, lives of the apostles, lives of the martyrs and an exposition or commentary on the gospels and epistles.